The picture of a Jew in Byelorussian folklore

The materials collected by students of Byelorussian folklore strongly confirm that anti-Jewish prejudice was rife in the pre-industrial Byelorussian society. The Jews living in the Byelorussian countryside mainly engaged in commerce and inn-keeping, and for this they were viewed as exploiters by the local peasants. These sentiments were fanned up by the Russian 19th-century propaganda, keeping alive the stereotype of Byelorussians as being 'Jews' slaves'.